IN attempting to inform ourselves on the theme of these chapters - conversion to God - different methods may be adopted. Any instance of conversion may be taken, its characteristic features noted, and our conception of conversion shaped accordingly. The sample chosen may be selected at random from any part of the Holy Book; from the Old Testament or the New; from Exodus or Jonah; from the Gospels or the Acts. And it need not be doubted that, in proportion as the example fixed upon is closely studied, and its essential points seized hold of, there will be just conceptions acquired and real progress made. The case selected may not be the most suitable, may be deficient in detail, or the farthest removed from the kind or circumstances in which we in this age are placed; but so far as it is an example of conversion, it cannot fail to guide us part of the way in the understanding of our subject.

In the choice of an example of conversion, however, a little more care may be exercised. The difference between the Old Testament religion and that of the New Testament may be taken into account. The query may be raised, whether in both dispensations the details of conversion are alike. Other queries naturally follow. Are we under Judaism, or under Christianity? If not under Judaism, but under Christianity, had we not better take our example of conversion to God from the times of Christ, that is to say, from the New Testament writings? And in selecting an instance of conversion from the records of Evangelists or Apostles, shall we look for one somewhat fully recorded; one in which we have particulars entered into and spread out in detail? A sample thus selected with discretion, and studied with care, will naturally give a more accurate comprehension of what constitutes conversion to God.

Again, a more comprehensive and inductive method may be acted upon. A number of conversions may be studied in succession and compared with each other. One by one they may be analysed, and the analysis of each laid by the side of the others. In one we may find a certain point specially prominent and clearly exemplified, while another point may come more into view in examining a second example. By a comparison thus of various cases, the real essence, the sum total, of conversion comes under consideration; the subject is seen in its several bearings, and is more deeply impressed upon the mind of the student.

How, then, shall we proceed in order to obtain a satisfactory answer to the question, What is conversion? Shall we take a solitary case, selected in haphazard fashion, the first that happens to come before us, and content ourselves with what it teaches, irrespective of further and more detailed teaching which may be found in other cases? Or, exercising more thought, shall we carefully select an example more likely to be fraught with the plainest instruction, and follow it exclusively? Or, once more, shall we proceed on the scientific and inductive method of examining each record in detail, comparing the several records, noting the special lessons of each, and collecting into one the lessons of all? Without hesitation the choice is made. We accept the profitable and pleasant employment of searching into the particulars of many conversions, gathering what truth is contained in each, and allowing our minds to expand to the comprehension of conversion to God as exemplified in numerous instances. It will demand much more of our time than the study of a single case would, and it will cost us greatly increased labour; but the time will be profitably employed and the labour abundantly repaid.

There is one thing tacitly implied in the preceding remarks, to which the reader's attention is now more specially invited.

The Word of God is the only source whence we may learn what conversion is and how it is brought about. An English dictionary should help us to the commonly accepted meaning of any word in everyday use; but if we mean to be correctly informed as to what conversion is in God's employment of that term, we must turn to the usage of the word by those holy men of God, who spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Modern reports of work done by various sections of professing Christians, may enable us to discover what they severally understand by conversion; but it is to the Scriptures that we must have recourse, if our aim be to obtain well-grounded assurance as to what is God's presentation of conversion, its causes and its real ingredients. Nor need that necessity be deemed unnatural to Protestants, whose motto is, The Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible. Without imagining it a restraint - on the contrary, rejoicing in an inestimable privilege - we turn to the Bible to learn whatever it discloses on our theme, pledging ourselves to abide by its representations, and to act under its guidance.

What instances, then, shall we select? How many conversions should be analysed and compared? From what parts of the Scriptures should they be taken? The remainder of this chapter will indicate the writer's choice and his reasons for that choice.

1. Judaism and Christianity require to be distinguished from each other.

JUDAISM, as the word partly suggests, was the religion of the Jews, the possession of one people. Jehovah had a delight in their fathers, and chose their seed after them above all people (Deut. 10:15). He promised to make them His peculiar treasure, and to constitute them a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Exod. 19:5-6). Their history exhibits one long severance of them from all others. As a means of making them a peculiar people their religion was a gift from Heaven pre-eminently for themselves. The giving of that religion, and the history of it, are preserved to us in the Old Testament writings. In these writings there are indeed many hints, and numerous rich prophecies, of blessing coming to the Gentiles, of those becoming God's people who had not before been known as such; but, then, in many cases these very prophecies point to something beyond Judaism - to a time when the ancient barriers would be broken down, when blood relationship would be no passport to special privilege; to a state in which old things would disappear and a new dispensation would be inaugurated.

CHRISTIANITY is our name for that new state of things. In it we recognise a universal religion, a religion intended for all. National distinctions are effaced; consanguinity brings no spiritual blessing; Christ is not known after the flesh. There is no longer a recognition of the Jew as different from Gentile; but out of the two formerly conflicting elements of Jew and Gentile there is constituted one body, the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

If, therefore, we are in quest of records of conversion which will best guide us, not as Jews, nor as Gentiles exclusively, but irrespective of descent, or as descended from progenitors so related and inter-related that our pedigrees are untraceable; if, in short, we are seeking for conversions that can be taken as patterns to every human being in all the world, we must turn, not to the Jewish, but to the Christian Scriptures, not to the Old Testament, but to the New.

2. Christ's earthly ministry and post-resurrection teaching should in like manner be distinguished.

JESUS LIVED AS A JEW. He was born under the law. His earthly ministry was under Jewish guise. He conformed to Judaism. He laboured among the Jews. He was not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matt. 15:24). He spoke from the Jewish standpoint when He said to the Samaritan woman, "Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship; for salvation is of the Jews" (John 4:22). While He was with them, He prohibited His apostles going among the Gentiles, or into any city of the Samaritans (Matt. 10:5,6). They were only to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The Old Testament God-given limitations were still in force; Judaism was not yet discarded.

AFTER THE RESURRECTION it is different. The Jews had rejected and crucified their Messiah; and the Messiah, though not abandoning them, though not turning His back upon them, places all nations on the same level with them. It was after His resurrection that Christ gave authority to make disciples of all nations (Matt. 28:19), to preach the Gospel to every creature in all the world (Mark 16:15), to proclaim repentance and remission of sins among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem (Luke 24:45-49). The Jews had forfeited their special privileges; under the Gospel all nations are alike before God.

Though thus between the resurrection and ascension of the Lord the apostles were instructed to preach to every one the same story on the same terms, they were not yet to begin. "Tarry ye," said Christ to them, "in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high." The power of the Father, the gift of the Holy Spirit, would be given them to equip them for their responsible work. They must not take a step from the Jewish metropolis, nor move a tongue in preaching the Gospel there, until they were filled with the Holy Spirit. We know when the promise was fulfilled. We have the account of the fulfilment in Acts 2:1-4. Then they were endued with the promised power from on high, and thenceforward they acted under the provisions of the world-wide commission.

3. The Acts of Apostles contains the record of the outworking of the commission to the world.

This book, as its name indicates, is specially a record of apostolic labours. It tells of the commencement of world-wide work, the turning of large numbers from among all nations to God, by leading them to have faith in His Son. The subject of report is not the progress of Judaism, the religion exclusively of one nation. What the writer of the Acts brings before us, is the establishing of Christianity. He records the first proclamation under the commission for the nations, the first conversions to God under the Christian system, and conversions thereafter in great abundance and in all quarters. From beginning to end this book tells of apostolic preaching and its results, preaching by the apostles or their co-labourers and its success, and of converts to Christianity or opposition to it. No other book records so wide-spread and persevering proclamation of God's truth, and so deep-rooted and far-reaching consequences. We turn to the Old Testament for a record of a national religion, Judaism; to the Gospels for particulars of the life of Christ, His sayings and doings; and to the Acts of Apostles for the records of conversion to Christianity - of the conversion of Jews themselves as well as Gentiles. The Gospels tell us of what "Jesus began both to do and teach" (Acts 1:1), while Luke, in Acts, goes on to tell us what He continued to do and teach by His Spirit through the apostles. Through them as agents He continued His work on a wider scale under laws applicable to all. We should look in vain in the Old Testament for much that is fully detailed to us in the Gospels. There would be an equally vain search in the Gospels for much that is clearly found in the Acts. It were useless to look in the Gospels for model conversions for us as Gentiles, the speeches and actions recorded there having transpired amid Jewish environment. Nor, indeed, need we look there for conversions to Christianity at all, Judaism still being in force. The Gospel history gives us an immovable groundwork in the life, death, and resurrection of Him who is the image of the invisible God; and the Acts shows to us how all classes turned to Him who had taken His seat at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

Inasmuch as the Acts of Apostles contains an account of conversions under Christianity as designed for all nations and all generations, and inasmuch as these conversions took place under the lead of inspired men - men breathed into and filled with the Holy Spirit, considerable confidence may be felt that by making this our text-book we are moving in the right direction to secure the most complete enlightenment on the subject of Conversion to God.

4. A general survey of the conversions reported in Acts.

A brief glance at a few particulars of the conversions narrated in Acts will further confirm the conviction that the fifth book of the New Testament is our proper guide to an understanding of conversion under the Christian dispensation.

a) Observe the number of conversions recorded. "Then they that gladly received his word were baptised; and the same day there were added unto them about five thousand souls" (chap. 2:41). "Many of them who heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand" (4:4). "And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women" (5:14). "The number of the disciples was multiplied" (6:1). "And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith" (6:7). "When they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptised, both men and women" (8:12). "Then had the churches rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, were multiplied" (9:31). "And all that dwelt at Lydda and Saron saw him, and turned to the Lord" (9:35). "Many believed in the Lord" (9:42). "And the hand of the Lord was with them; and a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord" (11:21). "And the next Sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God." "And when the Gentiles heard" that there was salvation for them, "they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord; and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region" (13:44,48-49). "And when they were come, and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them, and how He had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles" (14:27).

In these quotations there is no attempt at naming every conversion recorded in Acts; there is only reference made to some by way of examples of the vast numbers who in different places and at different times accepted Christianity. The careful reader will observe that these citations are from only one half of the book, the first fourteen chapters. The references are, therefore, by no means exhaustive, rather are they merely suggestive - samples of what took place when that dispensation was introduced which is destined to save "a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues."

b) Note that the converts were from all classes. The Acts is not a book of Jewish conversions alone. Gentiles turned to the Lord as cordially and as numerously as Jews. The book is a report of the power of the truth among a great variety of people. On the first day of Christianity 3,000 Jews owned Jesus as their Messiah and became His converts. Not long after, numerous recruits were gained from the Samaritans. Of them it is said, in the Revised Version, that "the multitudes gave heed with one accord unto the things that were spoken by Philip." Proselytes, too, supplied their share. Cornelius, a Gentile, was probably a proselyte. At any rate he was a worshipper of the true God. Among proselytes Paul seems to have found an entrance, and to have been heartily received, in Antioch of Pisidia. Nor were all the numerous converts from those who were previously worshippers of God. Idolaters also turned "from idols to serve the living and true God" (1 Thess. 1:9; Acts 17:1-4). Jews and Gentiles, Samaritans and Proselytes, worshippers of the true God and idolaters, are all found turning from their previous modes of life and conforming themselves to the teaching of Christianity.

Every station of life is represented. A great company of priests, as well as multitudes of the common people, were obedient to the faith. The polished Greek and the less cultivated inhabitants of Lystra and Derbe joined one brotherhood. Honourable women and others who were of less note became members of the one Christian Society. Every shade of society came so much under the influence of Christianity that Luke relates conversions from all.

These different classes contained a diversity of characters. We note the rigid Pharisee and bitter opponent in Saul; earnest students and willing learners in the Ethiopian Eunuch and the Bereans; devotion and benevolence in Cornelius; unfeeling coarseness in the Philippian jailor; and the cultivated interviewer in the Athenians.

c) The conversions were brought about under different preachers. The Acts of Apostles is so far an inaccurate name for the fifth book of the New Testament, inasmuch as the title is more comprehensive than the book to which it is given. We have here only some acts chiefly of two apostles, Peter and Paul. The labours of these two, however, are largely connected with conversions; so that their actions as apostles become a guide to us in our inquiry respecting conversion. We have thus ample opportunity of studying conversions effected under the ministry of Peter, to whom the keys of the kingdom had been given, and of Paul, the one born as out of due time; the former the apostle of the circumcision, the latter the apostle to the Gentiles; the one a disciple of Christ from the beginning, and characterised by an amount of impetuosity, while the other was a bitter opponent at first, only becoming a convert after Christianity had been fairly established, and characterised by indomitable adherence to whatever he espoused.

But there were other agents than apostles. Not a few were instrumental in producing conversions to God. Philip was the preacher in Samaria and in the desert, as reported in Acts 8. And he can scarcely be the apostle of that name; for the apostles were still in Jerusalem. Ananias was the teacher and guide who, so far as human agency was employed, lifted Saul out of that distraction of mind which he had suffered for three days in Damascus, and led him into the way of peace and joy. Even Saul had many co-labourers, as Barnabas, and Silas, and Timothy, who acted an important part in converting others. In searching into and comparing the records of conversion in Acts we shall therefore meet with a considerable variety of ministry, and we shall have full opportunity of observing whether there be any difference in conversions effected under different agents.

d) The conversions recorded by Luke occurred in places widely apart. During the first months of Christianity we have no account of missionary work except in Jerusalem; but a great persecution arose, and the disciples "were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria," and "they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word" (Acts 8:1-4). From Judea they went into Samaria, Phenicia, Syria, Cyprus, Asia, Macedonia, Achaia, and Italy. Noting the places more in detail, missionary work was done and conversions produced in Jerusalem, Samaria, the Desert, Lydda, Saron, Joppa, Damascus, Antioch, Paphos, Antioch in Pisidia, Iconium, Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, Ephesus, Corinth, and Rome. The disciples travelled northward from the cradle of Christianity to Damascus and Antioch (chaps. 9, 11), and by and by from Antioch westward through Asia as far as Rome. Chapters 13, 14, 16-19 give some idea of the incessant labours of the preachers, the numerous places visited, and the results of the preaching. Conversions resulted in localities so far apart that they were almost completely beyond the influence of each other. The movement was not of a restricted local nature, but rather of world-wide fame. These wide-spread conversions, as we find them related in Acts, open up to us a means of comparing conversions in places the most distance and unlike.

e) The conversions took place in the most diverse circumstances. On the day of Pentecost the inquirers were suffering under a sense of enormous guilt. They were charged with resolute antagonism to One whom God had approved in the most signal manner. They had opposed, and crucified, and slain Jesus of Nazareth, though God had attested His mission by notable miracles. At their Passover Feast, seven weeks before, they had been the means of His crucifixion. They had given away, rejected, murdered their Messiah. What was now to be done? These murderers, pricked in their heart, writhing under their guilt, having the path of safety shown to them, became thorough converts to the Christ whom they had so blindly rejected.

Saul of Tarsus resembled those Jews on Pentecost. He, too, had been in battle array against the Anointed of God. In his bitter persecution of the disciples, he had attempted a wholesale suppression of the cause of Christ. When he realised, by the miracle in which Jesus appeared to him on the way to Damascus, that Jesus still lived, and that God was on His side, he was thrown into the utmost anxiety. For three days his distress was such that he ate nothing. While under a sense of deepest guilt he was turned into the path of safety and joy.

The circumstances were different in Samaria. Magic power was in such ascendancy as to be denominated the great power of God. For a long time Simon had amazed the Samaritans with his sorceries. But the means employed to produce conversion was of such a nature as to triumph over the magician's tricks, turning men away from the amazing deeds of the sorcerer, and leading them into trustful obedience to the Messiah. "The multitudes gave heed with one accord unto the things that were spoken by Philip, when they heard, and saw the signs which he did." "When they believed Philip preaching good tidings concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptised, both men and women."

Similar magic power was employed by Elymas to pervert the ways of the Lord and prevent the conversion of the proconsul of Cyprus (chap. 13:6-12). Despite the effort of the magician to turn the proconsul aside from the faith, the truth conquered, and the ruler of Cyprus became a convert to Christianity.

If God's gracious arrangements resulted in conversion, not only when there was a heavy load of guilt to remove, but even when the inquirers were retarded by displays of magic power, it is not to be wondered at that we have records of the conversion of those who diligently studied the Word of God. The Eunuch was poring over Isaiah's ancient scroll when Philip joined him and enlisted him as a convert to the new cause (chap. 8:26-28). The Bereans searched the Old Testament writings to test the accuracy of the things reported to them (17:10,11). Such open-minded earnest research into what of God's will had been written, was the best possible preparation for conversion to God's fuller scheme revealed through Christ and His apostles.

The honest, zealous worshippers in Jewish synagogues were, it might be thought at first glance, in favourable circumstances somewhat similar to those earnest students of the Jewish Scriptures referred to in the previous paragraph. But on more careful thought it will be seen that there were adverse circumstances often operating in the synagogues. Any appearance of change, any turning aside from the common current of thought, was apt to be resented with strong feeling. Hence such scenes as that at Antioch (12:44-52). Notwithstanding the untoward influence of synagogue rulers and blindly zealous Jews, the Messiah's cause prevailed, so that in synagogues, as well as elsewhere, conversions happened. We can trace these conversions as they transpired within the environment of these Jewish schools, and amid the keen religious rancour of badly instructed worshippers.

Even where there was idle curiosity, little removed or in no way to be distinguished from gaping, time-killing inquiry after the latest novelty, some conversions happened under faithful preaching. The Athenians spent their time in hearing and retailing the latest gossip (17:21). But the power of the truth was felt and seen even among them. "Certain men clave unto Paul, and believed; among whom also was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them."

Conversions took place in the most varied circumstances; and Luke places so many of them on record that we can examine and compare them with full confidence that accurate knowledge is obtainable on the whole subject.

So much preaching, so many conversions, from all classes, under different preachers, in places widely apart, and in different circumstances, it would be impossible to find recorded in any other book. The Acts of Apostles promises, therefore, to be a rich field for the application of the inductive method to the subject of conversion. With all the examples before us there should be no serious difficulty in distinguishing what is essential from what is merely accidental i.e. what belongs to conversion as such from what is merely incidental to a particular case.